Mentors and a Menace
Never be satisfied. Always be curious
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G’day guys, gals and galahs. Three dozen, #36 hot and fresh. Short and sharp one this week as I’m trying to keep my head above water here. A quote from Anthony Bourdain to start:
Perhaps wisdom is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go
Here’s the format of today’s email:
Part 1: Mentors
Part 2: A Menace
Part 3: Bonus Quirky Content - Something to Read, Watch, and Listen
Mentors
Probably a bigger factor than what most people give credit for. They can be hugely influential in shaping your style. So thought it might be useful to highlight some of the very best and their thoughts on mentors.
Buffett
This quote is a double whammy. Useful advice and lead into a Simpsons reference:
When I went and offered to work for Ben Graham, I said I’d work for nothing and I meant it. Just the idea of being turned on, look for the job that is going to turn you on.
“Hello, Smithers. You're... quite good at turning... me on.” “Umm… you probably should ignore that”1
Charlie Munger
A great point, mentors don’t have to know you, let alone be alive.
I would say that you’re not restricted to living people when picking your mentors. Some of the very best people are dead.
Stan Druckenmiller
If you're early on in your career and they give you a choice between a great mentor or higher pay, take the mentor every time. It’s not even close. And don't even think about leaving that mentor until your learning curve peaks.
Bonus: Lesson from Soros: For a young Stanley Druckenmiller [VIDEO]
Frank Meyer to Ken Griffin
Ken Griffin on finding someone to just back you in:
"I owe a big part of my success to Frank [Meyer’s] willingness to take a risk in hiring me out of college, entrusting me with his investors’ capital and then being my partner back in 1990 when we launched Citadel.
Frank was a wonderful mentor, adviser and partner who encouraged me to build a platform. In other words, rather than focus on just one strategy, he encouraged me to assemble a team of professionals who could successfully deploy capital through a number of investment strategies.
Balancing both the short-term need to drive profits and the long-term focus on building a platform has been instrumental in our success over the years.
Source is this random blog with a h/t to @NeckarValue
Michael Price to Seth Klarman
Michael Price was fabulous at pulling threads. He would notice something, and then he would get curious and ask questions. And one thing would lead to another thing, and that would lead to another thing. I remember a chart that Michael made of interlocking ownership of mining companies that was an extension of a thought where one good idea led to another and had the potential to lead to many more if the threads kept being pulled. That was a great lesson — to never be satisfied. Always be curious.
Source is Graham and Doddsville and again a h/t to @NeckarValue
David Swensen to a lot of people [Link]
David passed away in May this year, and his impact on the investment community has shown. Plenty of high-quality investors touched on what made David so great and how he mentored them. Lei Zhang (Featured in Issue #15), on David:
David had confidence in me when few people did. When he made the decision to seed Hillhouse, I was 32 and I had never managed a portfolio. My partners at the time (who are still my partners), did not come from the investment world. The only thing we had in common was that none of us had managed investments before and that we all had an unbounded eagerness to learn. I later found out that when the Yale team did their due diligence on me, one of the comments that emerged was, “Sure, Lei’s smart and a good guy, but I don’t know that he has done much investing before, are you sure you want to give him actual money?”
I’ve asked David why he invested in Hillhouse at a time when surely no other institutional investor would have taken the chance. He said, when you work with the right people, something good is bound to happen. This has become a mantra now at Hillhouse: “Spend quality time with quality people.” I think this is perhaps the most important lesson about investing, and David knew it by heart.
Ted really pours it out here. Some great lessons.
Impact others. Investing isn't really about dollars and cents. It's about people and the impact money has on people's lives.
Why Your Mentors Seem Less Impressive Over Time [Link]
Slight detour, but an interesting one. Essentially, it’s the classic Pareto principle. You make 80% of the gains in 20% of the time. Whilst spending the remaining 80% of your time trying to eek out that last 20% of performance
Buffett’s more recent letters will seem worse to someone who has read 40 of them before, because Buffett can’t possibly generate entirely new insights as fast as he’s writing letters. After all, he’s also in the harder-going, less steep part of his own learning curve.
Conclusion
I’ll finish with this from Buffett:
I’ve had half a dozen or so heroes in my life. I think it’s very important to have the right heroes. Now they call them role models or whatever, but you’re going to take you cues from somebody. So I say, choose your heroes carefully, and then figure out what it is about them you admire. Then figure out how to do the same thing. It’s not impossible.
Bonus Resources:
Investing Mentors by MastersInvest - Very helpful quotes, provided a few here!
Some of Paul Enright’s Mentors
A Menace
Might be a well-known story to some, but I only came across the story of Nick Leeson just this week. How one bloke was able to bankrupt Barings Bank, UK’s oldest merchant bank. One bloke!
Going to give this the most compressed summary possible:
> Be Nick. Head to Baring’s Singapore office, not long after being denied a broker's licence in the UK because of committing fraud on your application.
> Make unauthorised speculative trades. Manage to net £10 million (10% of Barings' annual profit at the time).
> Also make a couple losses. Use one of Barings' error accounts (accounts used to correct mistakes made in trading) to hide your losses. No biggie.
> Continue using the account to hide your bad trades. Even use it to cover mistakes made by one of your traders who often rocks up to work after a long night of partying.
> By 1994, error accounts losses are £208 million. No worries. You have a plan.
> A "doubling" strategy: every time you lose money, bet double the amount that was lost in order to recoup the OG amount. Foolproof. Nick you mischievous mastermind.
> 16 Jan 1995, you place a short straddle in the Singapore and Tokyo stock exchanges. Essentially betting that the Japanese stock market would not move significantly overnight.
> *Narrators Voice* They would move significantly. The Great Hanshin earthquake hits and over 6,000 people lose their lives. Markets down bad.
> Losses piling up. Try to bet the Nikkei would make a fast recovery. That also flops.
> Leave a note reading, "I'm sorry" and flee Singapore. Losses eventually reaching £827 million. (twice Barings' available trading capital!)
> Eventually sentenced to six and a half years in Changi Prison in Singapore, and serve 4 years and 4 months.
> Moral of the story? I’ll let you decide.
Bonus Quirky Content
Something to read: The Lion and the Porcupine [Link]
So far, I would say that Taiwan has been surviving as a turtle nation. We have a certain amount of protection, being separated from China with the Taiwan straits and being the client non-state of the United States. We’ve lived under the sword of Damocles of invasion for so long we’ve become inured. Like a turtle, we’ve retreated into our shells and hoped that all will be fine. But as the navel strength of China builds up, that shell is getting thinner than ever. It’s time to change paradigms and become what many have called a porcupine nation.
An interesting read and perspective on how Taiwan handles itself going forward. Also want to say that I love Angelica’s writing style.
We all know that China never forgot about Taiwan. But so far, every day they’ve said…"not today." But the terrain is shifting and what worked for the next 70 years might not work for the next seven.
It’s our job to make sure the CCP keep saying that to themselves, every day from now on…not today.
Also, this is a hint of an upcoming guest 👀
Something to watch: Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain [Link]
You’re probably going to find out anyway but here’s a little pre-emptive truth-telling – there’s no happy ending.
I still remember the day Anthony had died. After work. Waiting for the next ride home at Cockburn2 traino. And it hit like a bag of bricks. Why would he? How could he? I don’t know where I’m going with this, but it’s amazing how someone I’ve never met can have such an impact on someone’s life.
I try not to emulate or copy any one person too much, instead aiming to take the best bits from many and connect it like lego. But Tony is the exception to the rule. His way with words, his attitude, his curiosity and his lust for adventure. All things I want to embody myself. Was he perfect? Of course not. Who is though?
One minute I’m standing next to a deep-fryer and the next I’m watching the sunset on the Sahara. I realised that one thing led directly to another. I realise, had I not taken a dead-end dishwashing job, I would not have become a cook. Had I not become a cook, I would never have become a chef. Had I not become a chef, I never would have been able to fuck up so spectacularly. Had I not known what it was really like to fuck up, that a noxious, highly successful memoir I wrote, wouldn’t have been half as interesting. And I’m not going to say here how to live your life. I’m just saying really, that I got very lucky.
Something to listen to (from me): Shiv Sharma on Compounding Curiosity [Transcript Link] [Apple Link]
Fair to say the retail investing trend has exploded since the start of 2020. So was great to hear Shiv’s insights on retail investors edges and what retail investing looks like in the future. Also some super cool thoughts on growth investing and the investing trend in India! Love these types of conversations where I can bounce around topics. Hope you can enjoy it as much as I did!
as people realize that maybe they’re not going to work in Apple, Google, Facebook for the next 40 years of their life, what they really want to do is end up in a beach, opening a bar in Bali. And if you do want that or you do want to have some optionality and flexibility in life, then I think the stock market and crypto world[…] is going to be a means to help achieving your goals. I think that’s one of the reasons why I’m super bullish on the retail investing trend
Rabbit hole/resource to dive into: Raw Craft with Anthony Bourdain [Link]
Never seen this series before! And yes, I’m on a Bourdain binge. Episode four on knives is super interesting.
Bonus investing links that don’t fit anywhere else:
Indonesian and Thai hotels rethink the resort experience [Link]
"A small number of hotels are innovating anyway, not by throwing money at things as they did in the past but with creative ideas aligned to sustainability principles or emerging tech. […] ‘there are beautiful hotels and villas all over Bali. When it comes down to what makes them different, it's the experiences we create. That's why we're constantly trying to do things that are unique and different.'"Miniso far, Mumuso good: how China’s ‘cultural copycats’ took over the world [Link] - I always assumed Miniso was Japanese, I feel so duped.
“I think if consumers want it, they want it. [Not] because it’s culturally authentic. They want it because it’s cool, which has always been the case, […] In the business we tend to agonise over cultural authenticity but the customer doesn’t really care. This is not disrespectful to the customer, […] They are only required to decide to if they like it or not.”
Final thought for the week:
And one, final final thought:
Until the next day that starts with W, have a good one!
- Ksimpson
You can find previous issues of Curated by Kalani here. I’m interviewing legends at Compounding Curiosity and on Twitter @scarrottkalani.
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Yes, that’s a real place. No, it’s not pronounced how it’s spelt, unfortunately. “Co-burn”
"Why Your Mentors Seem Less Impressive Over Time" 👌🏻👌🏻